The 2019 edition of Africa’s longest hackathon, Hacklab, has ended in Kumasi. This year’s event, which was held under the theme ‘Can Blockchain Technology Transform the Service Industry in Ghana’, brought together young developers and mentors within the tech space to interact and share ideas.

The mentors included Dr. Thomas Mensah, creator of the fibre optic technology, Dr. Charles Buckman, motivational speaker and life coach and Mr. Patrick Quantson, Head of Digital Transformation at Stanbic Bank Ghana. After a competitive pitch from 30 teams on blockchain technology solutions, the group CODENIFICENT emerged winner.

Speaking at the event, Patrick Quantson, said Stanbic Bank’s motivation for hosting the Hacklab is in recognition of the huge potential the digital technologies hold in transforming societies. “We are in the digital and data age and if we harness the opportunities they present effectively, digital technology is certainly going to accelerate the level at which humankind can solve problems and change society”, Mr. Quantson said.

In 2017, 15 interns were recruited from the hackathon to join the Stanbic digital transformation team. They contributed to developing epics such as the Enhanced Virtual Assistance (EVA), developed the #SBIncubator Website, the Welcome Emailers for onboarding new customers.

The Hackathon has over the years has grown to become Ghana’s foremost gathering of young developers and tech savvy youth. This year, over 400 student developers participated in the event, which was held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).